Category:JFK Assassination Connection

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Oswald Project

Oswald Project “CIA people killed Kennedy. Either it was an outright project of Headquarters with the approval of McCone, or it was done outside, perhaps under the direction of Dulles and Bissell.... Oswald was recruited from the military for the express purpose of becoming a double agent assignment to the USSR. It was said they had some kind of special handle on him. Perhaps, went the speculation, they had discovered that he had murdered someone or committed some other serious crime, during a routine lie detector test. In any case it was a very risky assignment. CIA taught him Russian and it was said he had been to the farm (CIA's agent training camp, Camp Peary, Virginia) although probably not in one of the regular agent training programs. He may not have even known he had been there. (That was often done with special cases. They would be put to sleep and wake up in a strange place and be told that it was some other place than the farm). Although they said that he knew he was working for CIA, he was kept rigidly compartmented from any of the normal contacts that a regular CIA employee would have. The operational people that I knew never admitted they were working on the project, although some hinted at it. Jerry Fox, a SR agent who purchased Soviet information, may have been one of them. The Deputy Chief of SR (first name was Dave, I've forgotten his last name) may also have been one too. More than once I was told something like 'so and so was working on the OSWALD Project back in the late 1950's’.” James Wilcott, CIA finance officer.

James Wilcott (and, Elsie Wilcott) Two CIA employees claimed that the Oswald Project was an official CIA operation and was on the CIA's payroll. James and Elsie Wilcott were recruited by the CIA as a husband and wife team in the late 1950's, shortly after their marriage. Their first tour of duty was in Japan (1960-1964) where they worked under Chief of Station William V. Broe, after which they returned to Washington, DC. Elsie Wilcott worked as a secretary in the Soviet Bloc Division, and James Wilcott as a finance officer. James Wilcott underwent a transformation to a radical in August 1965, resigned in April 1966, after nine years of CIA employment. He became friendly with CIA defector Philip Agee and broke his secrecy agreement with the Agency in 1968. In 1978 James Wilcott testified at a CIA tribunal in Havana, then testified before the HSCA.

Perversion of Records

Oswald documents CIA denied to the HSCA that the CIA's document dissemination records on Oswald existed and the CIA is still withholding some dissemination records because one of them indicates that the document on Oswald which mentioned his threat to divulge classified information to the Soviets was not retained by CI/SIG. Angleton kept as far away from Oswald as possible, so his complicity has to be explained in terms of what he did not do, rather than what he did. When these Oswald documents circulated, Angleton kept his own initials off them, just as he kept his name off all Warren Commission documents. But the initials of his subordinates Scott Miler and Elizabeth Ann Egerter appeared on them. All pre-201 (December 1960) CIA-generated documents on Oswald were either never generated, or destroyed. Paul Garbler, the CIA HSCA liaison, was asked about this by this researcher: “From the very start it became our task to tell the HSCA that CIA was not involved in the Kennedy assassination. In the course of this, a lot of information that we gave them became distorted out of the HSCA Staff's sense of bias. They came to the case with bias, and that bias persisted. The [Routing and Record Sheets] were merely a record of what happened to documents. And CIA claimed at that time they had been destroyed?”

Security File # 351-164 First document on Oswald was a State Department cable dated 31 October 1959. The HSCA reported: “A confidential, State Department telegram dated October 31, 1959, sent from Moscow to Washington and forwarded to the CIA reported Oswald, a recently discharged Marine, had appeared at the US Embassy, Moscow...and has offered the Soviets any information he has acquired as [an] enlisted radar operator.” This cable was first routed to the CIA's Office of Security where a file was opened on Oswald which was known as Security File # 351-164. The cable was sufficiently important to warrant the opening of a 201 file on Oswald.

CI/SIG/Oswald Angleton's division opened a file on Lee Oswald on 9 December 1960. The CI division intersects with Oswald and the assassination investigation at many points.

Note There were no official CIA project records on Angleton's Project Oswald, because it was a rogue operation with no approval from Director Allen Dulles. Additionally, at Angleton's request, no CIA documents were generated about Oswald for 15 months after he defected except for minor memo consisting of only a few sentences. These were generated at the time of Oswald's defection as a result of an inquiry by the FBI. There was not a CIA file on Oswald prior to 9 December 1960 in which all the documents about him were kept. Not only were there no records that linked Oswald to Angleton, there were no CIA records on Oswald at all. The only files that existed in the CIA's filing cabinets that concerned Oswald were FBI and State Department documents referred to the CIA.

201 file If a 201 file existed on an American, there was an 89% chance he or she was of some use or possible use to the CIA. Since 201 represented employment 89% of the time, many former CIA Staff members and employees were certain it was exclusively an employment file. In the US Army a 201 file is a personnel file.

Oswald 201

Oswald 201 There were no official CIA project records on Angleton's Project Oswald to find, because it was a rogue operation with no approval from Allen Dulles, the Director of the CIA. Additionally, at Angleton's request, no CIA documents were generated about Oswald for 15 months after he defected except for minor memo consisting of only a few sentences. These were generated at the time of Oswald's defection as a result of an inquiry by the FBI. There was not a CIA file on Oswald prior to December 9, 1960 in which all the documents about him were kept. Not only were there no records that linked Oswald to Angleton, there were no CIA records on Oswald, period. The only files that existed in the CIA's filing cabinets that concerned Oswald were FBI and State Department documents referred to the CIA.

Hartman Memorandum In September 1975 Counter-Intelligence Staff member Paul Hartman drafted a Memorandum for the Chief, Counter-Intelligence Staff (Angleton), stating that on November 27, 1963, he was instructed by Raymond Rocca, his immediate superior, to check Agency files in order to determine if Oswald had been used by, or was connected with, the CIA. Paul Hartman checked with Records Integration Division , Deputy Director/Plans, Domestic Contacts Division , Division D, SE Division, the Cuban Operations Group of the Latin American Division, Medical Services, Counter-Intelligence/Operational Approval, CRS, and Office of Security/Security Research Service: "The results were negative" as well they should have been, since Oswald worked for Angleton, not the CIA.

Warren Commission Document 692 (Oswald 201) Personal record created by the CIA after Oswald return home. He was allegedly not debriefed even though this was in one of the darkest periods of the Cold War. Prior to the JFK assassination, Oswald’s file was held by SIG. Shortly before the assassination, Oswald’s CI/SIG-held 201 file was transferred to the Mexico City Headquarters desk, responsible to John Whitten and supported by desk officer Charlotte Bustos. Oswald 201 file was marked “Restricted” and signed by Ann Egerter. Opened 9 December 1960.

AG code Actual or potential defectors to the East or the Sino/Soviet Bloc including Cuba. The CIA analyst added this OI code because CI/SIG (AnnEgerter) had stated that Oswald had defected to the USSR in October 1959.

Special Generally meant secret.

Question Why was Oswald's 201 file restricted?

Restricted dossiers Access to a sensitive 201 dossier my be restricted by holding the file at the desk or placing it on restriction on Central Files. Access to a restricted dossier located in Central Files is limited to the personnel of the restricting desk or persons authorized by that desk. Any request for the charge of a restricted dossier or any document within a restricted dossier held in Central Files will be forwarded with the entire dossier and a multiple-routed cover sheet to the restricting desk. This desk may then forward the file to the requestor or deny the request and return the dossier to Central Files. The desk will notify the requestor of a denial.

Angleton interest Form used to initiate the opening of the file contains a notation indicating the file was to be “restricted.” This indication was considered potentially significant because of the CIA's practice of restricting access to the files of its agents to persons on a “need-to-know” basis. The individual who actually placed the restriction on Oswald's file testified that this was done simply to allow her to remain aware of the developments that might have occurred with regard to the file. The restriction achieved this purpose because any person seeking access to the file would first have to notify the restricting officer, at which time the officer would be apprized of any developments.” According to Ann Egerter, the who opened Oswald's 201 file, after more than one year of total disinterest in Oswald (between the time he defected and the time the CIA opened a 201 file on him), the CIA became intensely interested in him; so interested, it could not wait for a periodic check of his file, but had to have, instantaneously, knowledge of any intelligence officer who was interested in Oswald so that the restricting officer would be apprized of any developments. A far more plausible explanation was that, due to the sensitivity of Oswald's mission, Angleton was interested in anyone who was interested in Oswald.

CI/SIG Personnel

(alphabetical listing)

Ann Egerter CIA counterintelligence officer Ann Egerter (d. 1990) of the Counterintelligence/Special Investigations Group, one of the “three knowledgeable people,” who invented the name “Lee Henry Oswald” in November 1960. She told the House Committee that Oswald's “contact with Kostikov” “caused a lot of excitement” at Langley; and that Oswald “had to be up to something bad.” after his visit to Mexico City 1963. Ann Egerter, one of the six or so hand-picked operatives working in James Angleton’sCI/SIG unit. Many in the CIA feared Angleton, feared for their lives if they crossed him, and suggested Egerter would not have manipulated Oswald’s file on her own, but only under express instructions from Angleton himself. Egerter retired in 1969 and died 16 July 1990.

Paul Garbler CIA staffer “You know what CI/SIG was? Find the mole. That's all they had to do. I have no idea what they were doing with files on Oswald. You opened this conversation by talking about a relationship between Oswald and Angleton. I totally unaware that there ever was one. I am unaware that CI/SIG ever had anything to do with Oswald at all. I could see that Angleton would have retained for his custody only some kind of Oswald file. I am unaware of which kind. I am not making an apologia, I am not trying to defend the CIA here. I merely telling you what I know, and what I do not know. I never knew that CI/SIG had any concern about Oswald at all. CI/SIG was devoted, in my memory, to find the mole.” Edward Petty commented, “I can see why somebody from the outside would say that. In very, very rough terms I suppose you can say that's true, although I never used to work moles.” It was suggested that Angleton may have been watching Oswald because he thought he had become a double-agent. Garbler: “A lot of paranoia existed back then. There is no question about that. CI/SIG found me to be guilty, before they had any evidence, as a mole.”

Anne Goodpasture Assistant to Station Chief Winston Scott, who supervised the work of three photo bases operating against the Soviet Embassy, when E. Howard Hunt was temporary station chief for six weeks,and Lee Harvey Oswald visited Mexico City, 26 September-3 October 1963 (Mexico City Trip). She was involved in Oswald 201. James Angleton said “I personally have had very little dealings with her but my men had had a lot of dealings with her. She was always in on very sensitive cases.” Goodpasture was also involved with Staff D, which was seriously involved with several coup attempts and assassination plots.

William Hood Former newspaper correspondent and OSS officer. In the CIA, William Hood was stationed in Vienna, (February 1951 to January 1955), Munich (Economic Office, August 1957), Berlin (Political Office, December 1959 to March 1960), and Washington (November 1962 to April 1964). William Hood joined the Counter-Intelligence Staff in 1973.

Newton Miler Newton S. Miler (1926-), the son of a meat packer, was an analyst in the Navy in 1946. Miler joined the CIA in 1947 and worked as a Case Officer in Japan and in the Philippines. He was a research analyst from 1949 to 1956. In 1956 he was in Thailand as an employee of the International Cooperation Administration, training police. He was listed as a Department of the Army area analyst in 1958. From May 1958 to June 1961 Newton S. Miler was in Washington where he was on the Counter-Intelligence Staff, dealing with Soviet counter-intelligence. In July 1961 he became CIA Chief of Station in Addis Ababa and in 1964 he joined CI/SIG. He was Counter-Intelligence Deputy Chief and at the same time had the responsibility for CI/SIG. Newton S. Miler stated: “The main thing we were doing was the search for penetrations. That was the primary thing...”

Clare Edward Petty (1920-) Artillery officer and was in military government in Germany, 1943-1946. He joined the CIA in 1947 and worked with the Reinhardt Gehlen organization of former Nazi Army General Staff Officers for eight years. Edward Petty stated: “It was determined at Nuremberg these men were never Nazi party members. They opposed the party. Gehlen had the files on the Soviet Order of Battle. We needed it.” Petty joined CI/SIG in 1966. Edward Petty recounted: “CI/SIG had to do with other things besides the so-called mole hunt that was instigated by James Angleton and Golitsyn. There were a number of very sensitive things which Angleton would just automatically send to CI/SIG, and Oswald was one of them. Those records were undoubtedly pulled out of other files, they didn't actually originate in CI/SIG, CI/SIG simply had the authority, capability and regularly pulled files from everyplace. CI/SIG would keep the papers on it [American defectors] and if there was something they could do about it they would, as you say, handle it. It was basically an office of record of such things, it was not an action office. Memoranda were routed to other agencies which would be generally signed by Angleton. CI/SIG did not carry on active investigations or operations, it was an analysis group. It had a paper sort of analysis capability. They absolutely did not run operations. They had access to all the documents, and that was the critical point where things were put together to determine, for example, a possible penetration involving CIA personnel, in which case you would go immediately to the Office of Security, and begin to cooperate on investigations. In the case of Oswald, the chances would be extremely high that if CIA had anything to say about Oswald, having checked CIA files, they would have said it to the FBI and that would be the end of it. CI/SIG carried on operational security type correspondence with the FBI. That was the point of liaison for that type of material. So anything that had to do with that sort of thing would go into CI/SIG files. We gauged the security problems in various Agencies. After all, things like that were usually not isolated. You have to look for connections between various things. Like the National Security Administration defectors, Martin & Mitchell, that bears upon security overall. There was a file on them in CI/SIG.

“In CI/SIG we had a very large three-room vault that was filled with such material which did not necessarily indicate that action was being taken. They keep paper on those things so they can watch the overall picture. In counter-intelligence, what you need is continuity and a totality of access. This was just part of the totality of their access. It doesn't mean they did anything about it necessarily. If action was taken, it was likely to have been simply correspondence with another component passing information or asking for information. I consider myself to be very well-informed on all of that material that was in CI/SIG. There would have been no analysis unless it seemed to tie to something else. After all Oswald sat in the base in which the U-2 flew into and out of Japan...I say that based on everything I know about CI/SIG and everything I know about the Oswald business and subsequently in relation to [KGB “defector”] Yuri Nosenko. The kind of organization that CI/SIG was, there were so few people there, we could not have possibly been running such operations...The absolute top [of CI/SIG] was eight people and that would be secretaries and everything...” Edward Petty

Raymond RoccaRaymond G. Rocca, James Angleton’s staff in Italy early 1945, who would loyally serve by his side until Angleton’s ouster from the CIA in 1974.

CIA Participants

Bill Harvey

Bill Harvey William Harvey (Bill Harvey) CIA agent William Harvey was removed as head of the ZR/RIFLE project February, 1963. Harvey was sent to Italy where he became Chief of Station in Rome. Harvey was convinced that Robert Kennedy had been responsible for his demotion. A friend of Harvey's said that he “hated Bobby Kennedy's guts with a purple passion”. Harvey continued to keep in contact with Johnny Rosselli. According to Richard D. Mahoney: “On April 8, Rosselli flew to New York to meet with Bill Harvey. A week later, the two men met again in Miami to discuss the plot in greater detail... On April 21 he [Harvey] flew from Washington to deliver four poison pills directly to Rosselli, who got them to Tony Varona and hence to Havana. That same evening, Harvey and Ted Shackley, the chief of the CIA's south Florida base, drove a U-Haul truck filled with the requested arms through the rain to a deserted parking lot in Miami. They got out and handed the keys to Rosselli.”

Patrick Hemming

Patrick Hemming Gerry (Jerry) Patrick Hemming (1937-) served in US Marine Corps April 1954- October 1958. In January 1959 he met Lee Harvey Oswald. Patrick Hemming introduced Oswald to James Angleton. Angleton encouraged both men to join Castro's revolution. The following year Hemming travelled to Cuba where he gave help to Fidel Castro and his revolutionary forces. Hemming established the Interpen (Intercontinental Penetration Force) in 1961. James Files was asked if he knew Sgt. Gerry Patrick Hemming and from where? “I worked under him down in Florida...No Name Key...you know I told you about that place...Assassin's Ridge...in the Everglades...” Sgt. Hemming said he remembered Files as being a “young hitter from Chicago that got into trouble down in Mexico and that Frank Sturgis of the CIA had to go down and bail you out” of trouble...” “Yeah, and I'll tell you one thing....he didn't just bail me out of jail...he didn't pay any money......if you know what I mean...” CIA memo 1966 revealed E. Howard Hunt, Frank Sturgis and Gerry Hemming had been involved in the plot to kill Kennedy.

Gerry Patrick Nom de guerre while in Cuba and later when training Cuban Exiles in Florida, February.1959 to May 1964.

The U-2 DumpPatrick Hemming introduced Oswald to James Angleton. Angleton encouraged both men to join Castro's revolution. Hemming was able to enter Cuba, Oswald could not. Evidence suggested that Angleton used Oswald for another mission that Hemming termed: “The U-2 Dump.” The first part of this mission involved Oswald's dispatched defection to the Soviet Union. Angleton did this on his own, with no approval from his superiors at the CIA. In the midst of a series of military and civilian defections (The New York Times reported four defections prior to October 1959) evidence suggested Angleton instructed Oswald to travel to the USSR via Helsinki and then to request Soviet citizenship. Oswald was instructed that he was not to tell anyone, even his mother and brother, about this mission, since their reaction would be part of Oswald's cover.

Gerry Hemming arrest Gerry Hemming was arrested on August 23, 1976 for the illegal transfer of a silencer and drug smuggling. It seems that this was the point that he began talking about his past work with the CIA. He told one reporter: “All of a sudden they're accusing me of conspiracy to import marijuana and cocaine. Hey, what about all the other things I've been into for the last 15 years, lets talk about them. Let's talk about the Martin Luther King thing, let's talk about Don Freed, Le Coubre, nigger-killers in bed with the Mafia, the Mafia in bed with the FBI, and the goddamn CIA in bed with all of them. Let's talk about all the people I dirtied up for them over the years.”

Tosh Plumlee Robert Plumlee, a pilot working for the CIA, was the co-pilot on a CIA supported flight that picked up Johnny Rosselli in a Military Air Transport Service plane from Tampa, Florida, early on the morning of 22 November 1963. Plumlee then took Rosselli to New Orleans. After picking up three more men, Plumlee took Rosselli and his friends to Redbird Airport in Dallas. Plumlee also testified that Rosselli had gone to Washington before catching the flight to Dallas in Tampa.